Sunwing Airliners Flight 772, a 737 with 183 passengers on-board, was only about 45 minutes into its trip from Toronto to Panama when a bomb threat was made by a passenger. What followed was an F-16 escort and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police special tactics team storming the aircraft upon landing, screaming 'heads down' and pointing tricked out M4s at passengers.

As to what exactly the man on board did to elicit such a heavy-handed response, National Post writes:

The 25-year-old passenger became increasingly agitated after the plane took off, Sunwing President Mark Williams said. The man tore up magazines and the safety card and tried to rip the window shade off, he said. After the passenger told the crew that he wanted to "blow up the airplane," the pilot decided to execute the airline's emergency response plan, Williams said.

Once the captain of the airliner declared an emergency, a pair of 180th FW USAF F-16CGs, based out of Toledo, Ohio, were diverted from a training mission to escort the plane back to Toronto.

Apparently the irate passenger in question's family says that he has mental issues (obviously?!), and that he was not a real threat, leaving some questioning if storming the jet with a half dozen commandos and pointing loaded assault rifles at passengers who had nothing to do with the incident in question was really necessary.

Tyler Rogoway is a defense journalist and photographer that maintains the website Foxtrot Alpha for Jalopnik.com You can reach Tyler with story ideas or direct comments regarding this or any other defense topic via the email address Tyler@Jalopnik.com